ADR 0148: Explicitly disable application keyboard shortcuts

• Status: Accepted
• Date: 2026-09-03
• Deciders: PI-Desktop core
• Related: Issue #31, E2E-072, ADR 0072, ADR 0076

Context

The shared application shortcut settings supported a missing override or a custom binding, but deleting an override always restored the default. Users could not intentionally unbind an action, and a null-like value was treated as invalid and then silently resolved back to the default.

Decision

AppSettings.keybindings uses three states per application shortcut:

• an absent property uses the platform default;
• a valid portable binding string overrides the default;
• an explicit JSON null means Unbound and disables dispatch.

Invalid strings continue to fall back to the default so corrupt or hand-edited settings do not silently disable product actions. The settings UI exposes Disable separately from Restore default, displays a localized Unbound state, and keeps an unbound action out of conflict checks. The application shortcut map is shared by renderer dispatch, macOS menu accelerators, and the plugin launcher.

When openPluginLauncher is unbound, Electron unregisters any previous global accelerator; Windows also disables the host-core Alt+Space hook and focused window fallback. Configurable macOS native-role items use a role-less clickable item while unbound, because Electron restores a role's default accelerator when its accelerator is omitted.

The setting remains in the existing JSON settings object. No new IPC method, protocol version, storage migration, or plugin-local shortcut behavior is added. The value is portable and not an Electron accelerator string.

Consequences

• Users can disable any built-in application shortcut without losing the ability to restore its default or record a new binding.
• resolveKeybinding returns string | null, so all consumers must handle the no-binding state explicitly.
• Existing settings retain their behavior; absent and valid string entries are unchanged, while only newly persisted null values disable actions.
• macOS menu clicks remain available even when their configurable shortcut is unbound.